AYUSH
Meeting on Certification of Yoga Professionals and Accreditation of Yoga schools held at New Delhi
The first meeting of the Steering Committee of Yoga Certification Board was held at New Delhi today. The meeting was attended by Secretary Ministry of AYUSH Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Swami Ramdev President Patanjali Yoga Peeth.
The Ministry of AYUSH announced a scheme on 22nd June 2015 known as “Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals and Accreditation of Yoga Institutions” with an aim to certify the competencies of Yoga Professionals and Institutions against the standards recognized for the same. Initially the Quality Council of India was the nodal agency for development of the standards for certification, procedure and its operation. In January 2018, Ministry of AYUSH decided to hand over the Scheme to Yoga Certification Board set up as functionally autonomous body under MDNIY. The Yoga certification Board headed by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary,  includes representatives of various ministries and experts and Dr. I. V. Basavaraddi, Director, MDNIY is Chief Executive Officer and member Secretary of YCB. The main objectives of the Board are as follows:
- To promote Yoga as means to promote holistic health and human values.
- To promote Yoga as a career skill.
- To develop standards & parameters, assess competencies and to certify Yoga Professionals for various levels.
- To develop standards & parameters, assess competencies and Accreditation of Yoga Schools/ Institutions/ Centres.
- To bring uniformity and standards in Yoga courses conducted across India and Globe.
- To collaborate with national and international organisations for promotion of Yoga.
The Scheme for Yoga Certification will offer Certification of Yoga Professionals under 3 categories to offer basic level certification as well as specialized certification as follows:
- Yoga Education and Training-
- Level 1 - Yoga Instructor for teaching common yoga protocol of IDY level. Such Yoga certified professionals can be Instructors for Yoga classes held in parks, societies and other places to cater to need of people practicing Yoga for healthy life.
- Level 2  - Yoga instructor to teach Yoga for prevention of illness and ensure wellness in schools / Yoga centers /organizations.
- Level 3  - Work as Master Trainers in education Courses and training programs in Yoga. He or she can also act as Evaluator and assessor of Yoga Professionals. Can teach in colleges/ Universities/ Institutions of higher Learning.
- Level 4  - Work as Master Educator / Trainer in Yoga Educational programs & courses and for skilled Yoga professionals
- Yoga Therapy
- Yoga Therapist - Such certified Yoga professionals can work under the medical supervision of Certified Physician or certified Yoga Consultant
- Yoga Consultant - The certified Yoga Consultant can practice Yoga for treatment of diseases in medical setups or can also work independently.
- Skilled Yoga Professionals
- Shat Karma Technician- To work at clinical setups under medical supervision. To act as Resource Persons for national as well as international conference on such practices/ Kriyas.
- Meditation Expert - To work as demonstrator at various platforms specially national and international workshops and seminars.
For renewal of certificates the revised scheme will implement Continuing Yoga Education  Program which aims at supporting the candidate in career growth as well as upgrading the skills of the certified Yoga professionals.
The second component of the scheme is Accreditation of Yoga Institution/ Schools under different levels based on their scale of operation, capacity, years of experience etc under 4 categories as follows:
- Accreditation and recognition of Leading Yoga Institutes
· Accreditation of Yoga Schools
· Accreditation of Yoga Training Centres.
- Accreditation of Yoga Therapy Centres
YCB will also undertake Grading of Yoga Schools/ Institutions based on the placement status of the Yoga professionals trained by the Institution/ School/ centres in the year.
The scheme will be continued to implement the scheme through third party mode where the Personnel Certification Bodies and the accreditated leading Yoga Institutes and Accreditated Yoga schools will be empowered to conduct the assessment of Yoga Professionals under the supervision of YCB. The Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India is also making provision to provide fee concession to SC/ ST/ OBC/ Economically Backward section candidates as per extant guidelines.
YCB is also introducing some new features for strengthening the process of enrolment, assessment and certification. Some of these are a dynamic website cum ERP package which will has module for online centralised registration, online payment gateway, centralised information about examination schedule, online Personnel certification Bodies management module, Security enabled Certificates and Id cards, CCTV camera for exam centres, etc.
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